The Web Catcher » Little or No Reading

Leo Reynold’s Letter Collection

K. Haugen — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 02:51:35 +0000

Today we take you to a Flickr page of photo collections by photographer Leo Reynolds. What’s unique about Leo’s photos is he takes close-ups of letters in all kinds of wonderful, whimsical locations, often more than 100 examples of each letter. He invites visitors to use the letters (and many, many other photos) in any non-profit activities, under a Creative Commons license. You’ll want to visit Leo’s other collections as well, including signs, nuts and bolts, mosaics, cemetaries and churches, and more. This site invites you to consider letters and literacy in a whole new light!

GhostReader from ConvenienceWare

K. Haugen — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 14:00:24 +0000

GhostReader (formerly TextParrot) reads text aloud with high quality voices and optional word-by-word highlighting. From ConvenienceWare, a part of AssistiveWare, which makes more fully featured accessibility software and utilities for people with disabilities

UpToTen.com – fun and educational

K. Haugen — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 19:40:04 +0000

UpToTen Kids calls itself “the fun place to learn online.” With online cards, coloring, interactive games, puzzles and more, there truly are a lot of fun activities, with some opportunities to learn along the way. As the name implies, the site is designed for kids up to age ten, but will probably appeal most to kids a bit younger. The site has many free games and highlighted games change frequently. There are also paid and premium subscriber options to skip the (mainly print) ads and access even more games and content. Plenty of teacher and parent info regarding the design of the site and its content.

Magnetic Numbers

K. Haugen — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 21:50:04 +0000

Like its companion Magnetic Letters, Magnetic Numbers is a simple, open-ended place to explore numbers. Simply click or type to place an endless supply of numbers and operators on the screen, then move them around to order them, create equations, or just explore.

Magnetic Letters

K. Haugen — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 21:35:00 +0000

Magnetic Letters is just what it sounds like – a screen with an endless supply of letters you can add by clicking or typing. Once on screen, you can move the letters around.

Youngest users can simply explore. For older little ones, challenge them to make new words from old ones, find rhyming words and more.

Crayola Digi-Color

K. Haugen — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 21:20:33 +0000

Draw online with digital versions of Crayola’s pens, paints, crayons and colored pencils. This simple site has no outgoing links, making it great for younger kids. Apart from one Crayola logo, there are no ads. This site would work great with a touch screen or graphics tablet!

The major downsides are no “undo” button and no “fill” or “bucket” but this does provide a simple, non-cluttered space for fun drawings.

National Library of Virtual Manipulatives

K. Haugen — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 19:28:42 +0000

National Library of Virtual Manipulatives – Explore operations, algebra, geometry, logic and measurement through online pattern blocks, graphing, a mastermind game and more (requires JAVA). With numerous activities, well organized by grade level and content area, the open-ended environment for explorations is a welcome toolkit in the classroom, and provides solid opportunities for fun, explanations and explorations at home.